LONG POND, Pa.—Jimmie Johnson had the same butterflies in his stomach when his car nearly didn’t get out on the qualifying grid in time for him to make a qualifying lap Friday at Pocono Raceway, just as it was three weeks ago at New Hampshire.

Johnson’s car passed post-qualifying tech Friday afternoon and he will start from the pole Sunday in the GoBowling.com 400 at Pocono Raceway.

Johnson, who three weeks ago at New Hampshire had to start at the rear of the field instead of in the second starting spot when his car was too low post-qualifying, saw his Pocono record-breaking lap of 180.654 mph stand after his car got the OK from NASCAR officials.

If a driver is not ready to qualify at the designated spot in the qualifying order, the driver gets five minutes to be in the car ready to qualify while the next cars in line are sent out on the track. Johnson went out four cars later than he should have during the qualifying session Friday.

"I wish there was some master plan behind it all," Johnson said. "(Other teams) are welcome to try it. They’re welcome to experience the stress that goes with it. My heart was pounding out of my chest trying to get in my car and beat the clock.

"I don’t wish that kind of stress on anybody. I think it’s pretty awesome how we’ve been able to perform in those moments, but it’s not what I want to go through."

While Kyle Busch said that might not have made the four-hundredths of a second difference that Johnson beat him by for the pole, it doesn’t go unnoticed that Johnson was pushing the time limit.

"I don’t think that made much difference but the draw he had being 20 cars later in general was certainly beneficial to him," said Busch, whose qualifying lap was 180.639 mph when the track was hotter.

"But, you know, it’s just that a lot of these other teams figure out how to play by the rules. It seems like there is one that is sometimes late quite often more than the rest."

Johnson said the left rear toe (alignment) of his car was 1/1000th of an inch off regulation and that is what the team had to fix to be legal. This was different than New Hampshire, where the team seemed to have a severe setup issue that resulted in the team having to shave off the sheet metal at the bottom of the right side of the car and eventually was too low in qualifying.

"I’m glad we got it sorted out," Johnson said about the Pocono issue. "We got on the (five-minute) clock, which always is a scary thing. But we beat the clock."

Busch said maybe his team should have its car set up where it has to go through tech four, five or six times.